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00:10Transcription by CastingWords
00:42He was big and courageous.
00:46He pressed forward always with purpose
00:49and achieved 54 of his 68 victories by knockout.
00:54While defending the heavyweight title over 11 years, 8 months,
00:58the longest reign in ring history, he never lost a fight.
01:02But beyond boxing, Joe Lewis lit the torch of freedom
01:05for a segregated America to accept a black athlete.
01:09The cost to him was immeasurable.
01:21There'd never been a career like this in heavyweight boxing.
01:25By any man, black or white.
01:28Joe Lewis was the greatest phenomenon of the ring that ever saw.
01:33He delivered his punches like Joe Lewis.
01:36He was the artist.
01:37Each punch was sharp.
01:39Each punch was fairly short.
01:41And it kind of hit and exploded.
01:44And you'd see these great big strong guys get hit once and just knock them out.
01:49Boom.
01:49And he hit you with that short right hand.
01:51It was devastating.
01:52He hit you over your jab.
01:53He hit you short right hand.
01:55He was a puncher.
01:56It was like just sort of a steady beat of menace.
02:00You get closer and closer and closer and you knew it.
02:03Just one flick of that right paw and it was all over.
02:06There had never been a meteoric rise like this in the history of boxing.
02:12It was unprecedented.
02:14By June of 1936, Lewis was 27-0 with 23 knockouts.
02:20He had already beaten two former champs, Primo Carnera and Max Baer, and was about to face a third, Max
02:27Schmeling of Germany.
02:29An 8-1 favorite, Lewis trained lightly and played hard.
02:35He was living large.
02:36He was making a ton of money.
02:38Here is a sharecropper's son, and all of a sudden, he's a national hero.
02:42Joe Lewis was just getting seduced by the fame machine.
02:48He was a superstar.
02:50Women were throwing themselves at him.
02:52He was discovering golf and fancy clothes.
02:55He really didn't prepare right for Max Schmeling.
02:59He has popped up Lewis' left cheek, and Lewis is down.
03:03Lewis is down, hanging through the roof.
03:05The first Lewis-Schmeling fight was one of the greatest upsets up to that time in the history of heavyweight
03:12boxing.
03:13Lewis was on a road for the championship, undefeated, untied, virtually unscored upon.
03:20Schmeling's upset of Lewis was amplified around the world by the Nazi propaganda machine.
03:27Nazi Germany didn't think Schmeling had a chance.
03:30They just sent him off.
03:31When he wins, he's brought back on the Hindenburg.
03:34He's given martial music, parades.
03:37They embrace him as basically the champion of the Aryan race.
03:42The first Lewis-Schmeling fight was simply a fight.
03:52Lewis got knocked out.
03:55From that point, it became propaganda.
03:57He didn't represent America to anybody until he got knocked out.
04:00Now, all of a sudden, he represented America.
04:03He thought he'd given up all that he'd worked so hard for.
04:05Not only had he let himself down, he let his family down.
04:09He let millions and millions of Americans down.
04:11Black Americans who were seeking and hoping that he would be the next heavyweight champion
04:15to prove that the most powerful individual in the world can be a black man.
04:20In black communities throughout the U.S., there was mourning.
04:25This was a young man who had given hope to many black people in what was still the Depression.
04:30This was a symbol of rising expectations, of hope, and suddenly it was destroyed.
04:40When Joe Lewis fought, it was like a holiday in black America.
04:45When Joe Lewis lost, it was like a death in the family.
04:50The effect on the white community was more complicated.
04:54The reaction to my father's defeat in 1936 was mixed.
04:58I think there were a lot of white Americans who didn't want Joe Lewis to become the heavyweight champion.
05:03People could not believe, did not want to believe, that Lewis had lost.
05:08In the white communities, there were many who said, yeah, he finally got it.
05:13As tensions mounted between the U.S. and Germany, a rare opportunity arose for the contender.
05:19As the lesser of two evils, Lewis would get first crack at champion Jimmy Braddock,
05:24despite his convincing loss to Schmeling.
05:28And I know it's not the commentary of what the person himself thinks,
05:34but the lesser of two evils.
05:38Man, all the guy does was being black.
05:41Says a lot.
05:48Citizenship, sportsmanship, honest decency, and the fact he was an American
05:53all helped him get that 1937 shot at Braddock.
05:58The reason that Joe Lewis got the opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship
06:02was that a lot of America would really rather risk having a black champion than a Nazi champion.
06:11With the fight scheduled for June 22, 1937 in Comiskey Park,
06:17Lewis, mindful of his mission, trained with a warrior's focus.
06:21Leveling Braddock in the eighth round,
06:24Lewis, at 23, was the first black champion since Jack Johnson reigned 22 years earlier.
06:29Still stinging from Johnson's in-your-face attitude,
06:34America was conflicted in its appreciation of Lewis.
06:37There was a tremendous amount of discomfort with the prospect of the second black heavyweight champion
06:43in American history.
06:44Even Ring Magazine would concoct a myth that Joe Lewis really wasn't black,
06:50the cushion, the blow when he became champion.
06:52All the white people were rooting for Joe's opponent,
06:55and all the black people were rooting for Joe.
06:59Friends of mine, other kids, they were anti-Lewis, simply because he was black.
07:05Although colored!
07:08When you hear the announcer say, although colored,
07:14clearly what you're saying is, this is not a gentleman boxer.
07:19This is possibly an animalistic sort of creature that we have here,
07:23but it certainly is a less than white human.
07:27They were just giving him all sorts of ridiculous names that were indicative of the racist kind of coverage of
07:32the time.
07:33They were calling him the Zooming Zulu, the Tan Tarzan of Thump, the Sable Cyclone,
07:39all these bizarre nicknames that have to do really with the color of his skin more than anything.
07:44While white America struggled with its own mythological fears and racial paranoia,
07:49every citizen of every black community from Harlem to Watts revered Lewis as something close to a god.
07:58Joe was one of the guys who was able to rise above the restrictions because of his boxing excellence
08:02and his neighborhood.
08:04It was a tremendous, tremendous emotional outburst when he fought.
08:08We gathered around the radio, and you could hear a feather drop, not a pin.
08:16Nobody talked.
08:16A prostitute did not work the street when Joe Louis was fighting.
08:21You could go into a bar and nobody would be arguing.
08:24Everybody would be pinned to the radio.
08:26Few people in the history of this planet have ever been able to do that.
08:30Everybody was quiet and listened.
08:32Once Joe Louis knocked someone out, it was always like a celebration.
08:36What could be more delicious than the sight of a black man, a powerful black man,
08:42standing over a fallen white guy?
08:44You know, the imagery is unmistakably powerful.
08:47It is.
08:48We didn't know anything about football, basketball, baseball.
08:51We wanted to be boxers like Joe Louis.
08:54Joe Louis was the Green Hornet, Superman, Batman.
08:57Everybody cared about baseball.
09:00It was the national sport, or the 1A, 1B sport.
09:06Black people just weren't allowed to play in the MLB.
09:09But you cared about baseball.
09:12And Dick Tracy, all these people rolled into one for African Americans.
09:18For all the glory heaped on him, Louis remained chastened by his defeat a year earlier to Schmeling.
09:24A rematch would have to wait until 1938.
09:27My father didn't feel that he was the true heavyweight champion of the world
09:31because he had to defeat Max Schmeling,
09:34because Max Schmeling was the single individual who had defeated my father.
09:38The 1938 fight, the second fight,
09:41was the most sociologically important fight in the history of boxing.
09:44It might have been the most sociologically important sporting event in the history of sports.
09:50It was that big a fight.
09:52A couple months before the fight,
09:54Franklin Roosevelt invited Joe Louis to the White House
09:57and felt his bicep and told him and the press,
10:01we're going to need muscles like yours to defeat Germany.
10:05What more do you need than that?
10:06The papers were not always too kind to Joe
10:09because of his race.
10:12But this marked a sea change in attitudes towards Joe
10:16because he was no longer a black fighter.
10:18He was a fighter fighting Nazism.
10:22The whole notion of Nazi Germany,
10:25the Aryan race, the superior race,
10:29was being challenged by Joe Louis, who was a black man.
10:33Even the worst bigots,
10:37they wanted him to defeat Max Schmeling in their image.
10:41In 1936, when Schmeling was Louis,
10:45Joe Louis was a black man.
10:48In 1938, when he fought Schmeling for the second time,
10:53Joe Louis was an American.
10:55Story, common to every black soldier,
10:58a conviction that the freedom they won would not be theirs.
11:03In Alabama, it was a large family.
11:06It was a rural family.
11:08He was a descendant of a slave owner named James Barrow.
11:14And his given name was Joseph Louis Barrow.
11:18Joe grew up in an area where there was really no racial prejudice.
11:21Just, you know, everybody was poor, black and white.
11:25Louis's father was declared insane and wound up in an institution.
11:30He was raised by his mother and his stepfather.
11:35Joe's stepfather, Pat Brooks, brought five children of his own to the Barrow family.
11:39In 1926, the family picked up and headed north out of Alabama.
11:46After World War I, hundreds of thousands of African Americans
11:50moved up from the southern states to work in the auto plants
11:54and all the other industrial plants in the north.
11:57The family moves to Detroit.
11:59His mother wanted him to play the violin.
12:02He actually took lessons.
12:04But most times, he would just walk out of the house with his violin case,
12:07go to the gymnasium.
12:08The money that he was spending for violin lessons,
12:11he started spending it to rent equipment to box, unknown to his parents.
12:16He didn't want his mother to find out he was boxing.
12:18Once she did find out he was a boxer and wanted to pursue boxing
12:22versus violin lessons, she simply said, be the very best.
12:26At 18, Louis began his amateur career in the Brewster Recreation Center.
12:31When it became clear that he was championship material,
12:34Joe won 50 of 54 bouts,
12:36he was schooled by his two black managers to behave in a way that white America could accept.
12:42Louis came along with this very carefully crafted public image
12:46to make him acceptable to the white public.
12:50For almost 25 years after Jack Johnson became heavyweight champion,
12:57blacks got no shot at a heavyweight championship match.
13:03They knew the public remembered the reign of Jack Johnson,
13:07how Johnson had taunted opponents,
13:09how Johnson had been flamboyant,
13:11how Johnson had openly gone around with white women,
13:15things which were resented by white America at that time.
13:19Jack Johnson drove the white establishment nuts.
13:23He was cocky, he was arrogant, he was everything that would give white America a stroke.
13:29They knew they had to have Louis behave,
13:33at least publicly, in a very, very different way.
13:37His standages gave him a written list of things he could and could not do.
13:42They were all based on him not replicating the public conduct of Jack Johnson.
13:50No braggadocio, no white women,
13:54no leering and taunting and so forth in the ring,
13:58particularly of white contenders.
14:01Go in, take care of your business in a workmanlike fashion, and get out.
14:06He was to operate at all times as a black man with dignity.
14:12He wouldn't even eat watermelon and be photographed eating it,
14:16which was his favorite food, for fear it would feed the stereotype.
14:20Joe Louis was not a vocal person,
14:23but he understood his role in terms of breaking down the barriers in this country.
14:28Joe Louis also held himself for a certain kind of public dignity,
14:32and black people liked that.
14:33In fact, they thought he was superior to Jack Johnson in that way,
14:36and didn't do anything publicly to embarrass the race.
14:40Jack Johnson wasn't in Louis' corner, literally and figuratively.
14:45He had applied to Louis to train him.
14:47One of the conditions was that Louis fired Jack Blackburn,
14:52who had fought Jack Johnson way back in the turn of the century,
14:55and they were enemies.
14:56Not only would Louis have nothing to do with it,
14:59he viewed Jack Johnson as 10 miles of bad road.
15:04Using Johnson as a model of what not to be,
15:07Louis developed a persona straight out of the Boy Scout manual.
15:11He was kind, considerate, polite, and self-effacing.
15:15You'd knock a guy out, and you'd get on the radio and say,
15:19another lucky night.
15:21Nothing lucky about it.
15:22He killed the guy.
15:23Oh, I felt fine.
15:24I had a tough fight, and I had a fight, and I fought a tough man.
15:27And he was a very good fighter.
15:29He understood the impact he was having.
15:32He also understood that he was giving hope.
15:34When he would walk through the ghettos of the society,
15:36and people would walk up to him and shake his hand and tell him,
15:41thank you, champ.
15:42Those were the things that meant so much to my father.
15:45A black man, when he lost to Schmeling,
15:48Louis's pigment would not be relevant
15:50on the night of the 1938 rematch in Yankee Stadium.
15:54With Hitler on the march in Europe,
15:56Louis fought for All-American.
16:02The sporting event of the 20th century.
16:05At the time, Hitler and fascism were...
16:12The laboratory for the theory of Aryan supremacy.
16:15People thought it was a dress rehearsal for World War II.
16:19There was nothing like it in the history of sports.
16:22It did seem as if in fighting Max Schmeling,
16:24he was fighting the very quintessence of evil.
16:26I am happy, but I have to change again to fight for the title.
16:30The world wanted my father to defeat Max Schmeling
16:34simply because they wanted to send the clear signal to Germany
16:37that there's no such thing as the master race.
16:39The propaganda machinery on both sides of the ocean
16:44was so intense, it looked like democracy versus fascism.
16:48Schmeling represented Adolf Hitler.
16:51Joe Louis represented Franklin Roosevelt.
16:53With Hitler having annexed Austria in March of 1938,
16:58the free-fight build-up moved from the sports section to the front page,
17:02all across America and Europe.
17:05This is no longer a prize fight.
17:08This is about bigger stakes.
17:10This is about whether they have something in their little nasty DNA pool
17:17that is better and purer than our polyglot
17:23and self-evidently flawed democratic DNA pool.
17:29People think that I'm going to the rank gunshot.
17:32Why should I go to the rank gunshot
17:34when Schmeling's two years older
17:37and I'm two years smarter in boxing?
17:40Joe Louis had a sense of responsibility.
17:42He was fighting for America and the blacks.
17:45Of course, there was a lot of pressure on Lewis to win that second fight.
17:48The thing that excited me most
17:52in the second Schmeling fight
17:54when the guy said that the American is coming in the ring,
18:00well, I had never heard anybody call
18:03a black American an American.
18:07The eyes of the world were on Yankee Stadium
18:10on the night of June 22, 1938.
18:14Lewis came out
18:15and this time, instead of waiting to counter, he attacked.
18:20I don't think there's ever been
18:22a more ferocious single minute
18:25in the ring than the beginning of that fight.
18:31He trapped Schmeling on the ropes.
18:34Schmeling turned his torso to avoid a right hand
18:38and Lewis lands the punch in the middle of his back
18:41and he breaks two vertebrae.
18:44Schmeling screamed in pain like a wounded animal.
18:48I'd never heard a man scream and holler like he did.
18:52Oh, no! Oh, no!
18:54And holding his hands up. Oh, no!
19:02He said he could see in my father's eyes
19:05a level of determination and drive and tenacity
19:08and he knew no one could have defeated Joe Willis on that night.
19:11The fight is over on a technical knockout.
19:14Schmeling is beaten in one round.
19:17At that moment, it felt like Joe had knocked out Hitler.
19:21The beating ended at 2.04 of the first round
19:25when Schmeling hit the canvas for the third time.
19:28Never had a victory been struck more clearly.
19:31Never had America loved a black man so completely.
19:35It was Mardi Gras.
19:37It was Liberation Day Paris.
19:40It was Fourth of July.
19:41It was everything.
19:42I don't even know whether we heard it
19:45what actually happened.
19:47All I know, it seems like the whole world was roaring.
19:51Joe Willis was the hero of the hour,
19:54not just to black America, but to all America.
19:57For the first time in the history of the U.S.,
20:00the national hero was a black man.
20:04When Joe Willis defeated Max Mellon,
20:07it was a huge victory for the national ego.
20:12I sense that we can beat them.
20:16They're not superior to us.
20:17Joe Willis, in his way,
20:20put an end to these notions of racial inferiority.
20:24Joe Willis said what his fist was.
20:27We couldn't say politically,
20:28couldn't say socially,
20:30couldn't say economically,
20:32and he did it as a gentleman.
20:34Joe Willis transcended the race
20:36and transcended being the heavyweight champion of the world
20:39to an individual who gave hope
20:41to an entire generation of Americans
20:43and many people throughout the world as well.
20:45Even white folks on the job
20:47that would say nigger 50 times a day,
20:49that would say boy this and boy that,
20:51they would light up when they talked about Joe.
20:54Joe Willis spoke for the people.
20:57Not boxing people,
20:58not African Americans,
20:59not white.
21:00The people.
21:01Joe, the first stage of acceptance
21:03for a lot of sports writers
21:05was to patronize him,
21:07to start calling him a credit to his race.
21:10And that was when Jimmy Cannon
21:12wrote his classic line
21:14saying, quote,
21:16Joe Willis is a credit to his race,
21:18the human race.
21:19But deep below the surface,
21:21Joe's victory as a boxer
21:23rang a sour note.
21:24In the house of America,
21:26he still lived in the cellar.
21:28Americans took him to their heart
21:30as no one had been before.
21:32The saddest part of it is
21:34that it never translated.
21:35It never carried over.
21:37It never occurred to those Americans
21:40that the guy who was defeating
21:42the Aryan champion
21:43couldn't go into some places in America.
21:46That those people who were applauding him
21:47and claiming to love him
21:49wouldn't let him eat in their restaurants.
21:52So here the irony was
21:53that this was a black man
21:55holding up the flag for freedom and democracy,
21:57but yet he couldn't enjoy those freedoms.
22:00He couldn't live the democracy
22:01that he was fighting for.
22:14He would take on
22:16the so-called bum of the month,
22:17which meant that they weren't
22:19first-rated heavyweights,
22:20and defeat them all.
22:22The first Billy Kahn fight
22:23came at the end of an era
22:25called the bum of the month,
22:26but Kahn was far from a bum.
22:28In June of 1941,
22:31after 13 more successful defenses,
22:34Lewis met the 174-pound White Hope.
22:37Kahn surprised the champ,
22:39outfighting him for 12 rounds.
22:41An upset was in the making.
22:44Billy Kahn got cocky,
22:46and instead of going for the decision,
22:48he tried to knock Joe Lewis out.
22:50He began to try to slug with Joe Lewis,
22:53and that was a mistake.
22:55Lewis, who's losing the fight,
22:577-4-1 on most scorecards,
22:59nails him in the middle of the ring,
23:01and then puts together
23:03that classic Joe Lewis combination,
23:06head, body, uppercut,
23:07and Kahn was out.
23:09I guess I had too much to win for tonight,
23:11and I tried to knock him out.
23:13Otherwise, I don't want easy.
23:15Joe Lewis, American soldier.
23:18Anxious to get into Army uniform,
23:20the heavyweight champ
23:21rushes from the prize ring,
23:22where he KO'd Buddy Bear in one round,
23:25to Fort Jay, New York.
23:26What's your occupation?
23:28Fight in.
23:28When he volunteered for the Army,
23:30he conducted some 96 exhibitions
23:31and entertained some 3 million troops,
23:33because that's what he could do
23:35to support the war issue.
23:37Those are the kind of things
23:39that Joe Lewis did
23:40to prove to America
23:41that black Americans
23:42could make sacrifices
23:43even though they could not experience
23:45the opportunities of this country.
23:49We're going to do our prize,
23:51and we will win
23:53because we are on dry fire.
23:55He got the line.
23:58Some press agent spin doctor
24:02told him to say,
24:03we're going to win
24:04because God is on our side.
24:07And somehow he screwed it up,
24:09but made it better.
24:10He said,
24:11we're going to win
24:12because we're on God's side.
24:14He was a simple man
24:16in his own way.
24:18He was not a well-educated man.
24:20But there was
24:22a humanity about Joe Lewis.
24:25There was
24:27a sincerity
24:29and insight
24:31about Joe Lewis.
24:34He went around
24:35with Sugar Ray Robinson
24:37and made sure
24:38that the crowds of soldiers
24:40were integrated
24:41where he and Ray Robinson
24:43boxed exhibitions.
24:45He was conscious
24:46of segregation in 1942.
24:49This part of Joe Lewis
24:51is tremendously underestimated
24:53how racially sensitive
24:56he was
24:57behind this poker-faced,
25:02respectful,
25:03humble,
25:04modest champion.
25:06Joe Lewis opened doors.
25:09He did the best he could.
25:10He tried to push the envelope
25:14as much as was possible
25:16and did so in his own way.
25:18He did not accept segregation.
25:19He fought it
25:21and to a large extent
25:22he was successful.
25:23Joe Lewis had the means
25:24and the notoriety
25:25and the abilities
25:26to deal with this whole issue
25:28of prejudice and racism.
25:29People who criticize my father
25:31for not marching,
25:32who criticize my father
25:34for not being vocal,
25:35simply don't understand
25:36that while he was in the Army,
25:38whenever he saw black troops
25:40being segregated against,
25:42he picked up the phone
25:43and called and said,
25:44it's not white down here.
25:46At Fort Riley, Kansas,
25:48Lewis interceded
25:49on behalf of a soldier
25:50whom he befriended.
25:51Jackie Robinson
25:52had allegedly struck
25:53an officer
25:54who had hurled
25:55a racial epithet at him
25:56and a second black soldier.
25:58Before military justice
25:59could have its way,
26:01Lewis persuaded
26:02the base commander
26:02to dismiss the matter
26:04and Robinson was allowed
26:05to finish
26:05officer's candidate school.
26:07Yep.
26:08So without Joe Lewis,
26:10there would not have been
26:12a Jackie Robinson
26:13in more ways than one.
26:14In the final months
26:16of the war,
26:17Lewis and his wife Marva
26:18divorced,
26:19only to remarry in 1946
26:21after Lewis was discharged.
26:23While he pursued
26:25his good guy image
26:26in public,
26:27privately he enjoyed
26:28the ancient privileges
26:30due all heavyweight champions.
26:32My father tells my mother
26:34that he's going to go
26:34get a loaf of bread.
26:36Well, Joe Lewis
26:37going to buy a loaf of bread.
26:38Two weeks later,
26:40after carousing,
26:41he comes back
26:41with a loaf of bread
26:42and a diamond ring
26:43for my mother.
26:44And he wanted
26:45to go out and party.
26:46Joe Lewis liked women
26:48very much.
26:50Women liked him.
26:52So there was
26:53this conflict
26:54between the public image
26:56and the private Joe Lewis.
26:58He went out to Hollywood
26:59to make some films,
27:01particularly films
27:02to support the war issue.
27:04He obviously met starlets,
27:05and they were attracted to him
27:07as he was attracted to them.
27:08This guy went through,
27:10you know,
27:11Hollywood white starlets
27:13like a thresher.
27:14Pretty well documented
27:15that he had an affair
27:16with Sonia Henney,
27:17who is arguably
27:18one of the most popular
27:20women in the world.
27:21Joe Lewis' philandering
27:23may have been
27:24a rebellion
27:25against being
27:26so overly programmed.
27:28He was told
27:29what to do
27:30all through training camp,
27:31where to go,
27:32who to see,
27:33and I think he wanted
27:35to get away
27:36from his handlers.
27:37I think it was a way
27:38to be liberated,
27:39to go out
27:40at one in the morning
27:41and be free.
27:43With his second marriage
27:44to Marva unraveling,
27:46Lewis continued to party
27:47while circumstances
27:48beyond his control
27:50were closing in.
27:51He was Madison Square Garden's
27:53property to protect,
27:54and they didn't.
27:55In 1942,
27:56he fought two fights
27:58for the heavyweight championship
27:59of the world
28:00and donated entire purses.
28:01Mike Jacobs,
28:02motivated the fights.
28:03He gave Joe's purse
28:04to charity,
28:05but did not pay Joe,
28:07so did Joe really
28:08earn the money,
28:09and that was a problem.
28:11Madison Square Garden,
28:12filing his income tax returns,
28:14they did everything for him,
28:15failed to claim
28:16those as a deduction.
28:18From that moment on,
28:19Joe Lewis was in tax trouble.
28:22For Lewis,
28:22it was only the beginning
28:24of a long slide
28:25into tragedy.
28:29Shame.
28:30Opponents.
28:31There's nobody.
28:31There's this one journeyman
28:33out there,
28:34Joe Walcott.
28:35Well,
28:35Joe Lewis' first fight
28:36against Jersey Joe Walcott
28:38showed us
28:39that he was no longer
28:41the Joe Lewis
28:42of story and song
28:44and youth.
28:45We were listening
28:45to the fight
28:46on the radio,
28:46and I thought
28:47he was going to be beaten,
28:49and I would go
28:50between rounds
28:51to my bed
28:52and cry.
28:53When the fight was over,
28:54I wanted to cry,
28:55I just wanted to cry.
28:57He started to leave
28:58the ring in shame
29:00because he knew
29:01he'd lost the fight.
29:02The winner
29:03by maturity,
29:05folks,
29:06and still the heavyweight champion
29:08of the world,
29:10Joe Lewis!
29:11There was bullies.
29:13It was...
29:13Walcott was wrong.
29:17And so that was
29:19the signal
29:20that it was
29:21the beginning
29:22of the last
29:24act of
29:25Joe Lewis'
29:26professional life.
29:28Lewis earned back
29:29public support
29:30by knocking Walcott
29:31out in their rematch
29:33in June of 1948.
29:34It was the 25th
29:36successful defense
29:37of his title,
29:37a record that still stands.
29:40Well, I'd like to say
29:41again that
29:42I'll reach out
29:43tonight with my life's life.
29:45Thank you very much.
29:46For Lewis, 34,
29:48success outside the ring
29:49proved elusive.
29:51Among his investment failures
29:53were a soft drink
29:54called Joe Lewis Punch,
29:55the Brown Bomber Bread Company,
29:57and a fight
29:58promotion agency.
29:59But as his bank account
30:00dwindled,
30:01Joe never learned
30:02to say no.
30:04God knows what kind
30:05of financial advice
30:06he was getting
30:07or how many people
30:08had their hands
30:09in his pockets.
30:10People would be
30:11lying up and he'd be
30:12passing our dollar bills
30:13or ten dollar bills
30:14and he'd give some people
30:15a hundred dollar bill.
30:16Joe was best described
30:17as a chemist with money.
30:18He had a way
30:19of destroying it.
30:20He used to go to
30:22the golf course
30:24and he'd take,
30:25you know,
30:26those little black bags
30:27that the doctors
30:28used to carry around
30:30full of money
30:31and he'd lose
30:32all of that money.
30:33Joe had no concept
30:35of money at all
30:36and when he was fighting
30:37he always used to
30:38borrow money
30:39in advance
30:39from Mike Jacobs.
30:41Mike Jacobs
30:42had his tax guide
30:43deducted
30:44all of the advances
30:45he'd given Joe
30:46in his four years
30:47in the Army
30:48which amounted
30:49to about $300,000.
30:51Joe bought
30:52steak dinners,
30:54spent money
30:55for soldiers,
30:56one or two gifts
30:57for ladies,
30:58but mostly in connection
30:59with soldiers
30:59and their entertainment.
31:01All of those items
31:02were deducted.
31:03At that time,
31:05Mike and his accountant
31:06knew that it would be
31:08four or five years
31:08before the government
31:10would catch up
31:10to the improper
31:11deductions.
31:13In 1950,
31:14he became the focus
31:15of an IRS audit
31:17that would result
31:18in a debt
31:18of more than
31:19a million dollars.
31:20Desperate for a payday,
31:22Lewis made a comeback
31:23later that year,
31:24losing a 15-round decision
31:26to heavyweight champion
31:27Ezard Charles.
31:29In 1951,
31:30he was offered
31:30$300,000
31:31to face
31:3228-year-old contender
31:34Rocky Marciano.
31:36And when Rocky
31:37fought Joe Lewis
31:38in the Garden,
31:39he didn't want
31:39to take the fight.
31:41Joe Lewis had to beg him
31:43to take the fight.
31:44It's the only way
31:44that he could make
31:45some money.
31:45Well, Joe Lewis
31:46was fighting clearly
31:47just for the money.
31:48He was fighting
31:48a much younger man.
31:50He had lost
31:50most of his skills
31:51and we were seeing
31:53a shell of what
31:54Joe Lewis had been.
31:55And Joe is a helpless figure.
32:00He looks like one of those
32:03bums he used to knock out.
32:05Finally, in the eighth round,
32:07Lewis went down twice.
32:11And the referee,
32:12Ruby Goldstein,
32:13stopped the count at eight.
32:16He did not want
32:17to count on Joe Lewis.
32:19Saddest moment
32:20I've ever experienced
32:21in boxing.
32:22Joe Lewis,
32:25lying outside the ropes,
32:26head being held
32:28by one of the writers.
32:29It was over.
32:30An era was over.
32:31Rocky really loved Joe Lewis.
32:33And after the fight's over,
32:35we're in the dressing room
32:35and he was crying
32:36like a baby Rocky.
32:37He didn't want Joe
32:38to get hurt, you know?
32:39I cried that night
32:41because I hated to see Joe
32:42get knocked out
32:44like he did.
32:45I don't think
32:45there was a dry eye
32:46in the house.
32:48The house.
32:50I mean the United States.
32:52Retired for the second
32:54and last time,
32:55Lewis fought exhibitions
32:56while the IRS
32:57relentlessly pursued him.
33:00Even when Joe's mother
33:01died in 1953,
33:03the government collected
33:04the $667
33:05she had willed
33:07to her son.
33:08When he tried
33:09to settle,
33:09the IRS prolonged
33:10that settlement
33:11and the media kept running
33:12and running and running.
33:13And then they used them
33:14as a symbol
33:15to discourage
33:16other taxpayers.
33:18You know,
33:18we got this guy,
33:19you're next.
33:20He had to feel
33:21bitter,
33:22misused.
33:23It is one of the
33:26permanent
33:27stains on America
33:28that this
33:31phenomenal
33:31hero
33:32who did so much
33:33for his country
33:34would then be
33:36hurt
33:37and destroyed
33:38in such a fashion.
33:39One thing you can
33:40never say about Joe
33:41and that is
33:42that he had
33:43criminal intent
33:44to defraud
33:44the United States
33:45of America
33:46and to treat
33:47him like
33:48a common
33:48criminal
33:49is criminal
33:50in and of itself.
33:52A weary Lewis
33:54staved off
33:55the IRS
33:55with payments
33:56gained from
33:57game shows
33:57and radio
33:58and TV commercials.
34:00I just want
34:01to say one thing.
34:03Edwards and Hanley,
34:04where were you
34:04when I needed you?
34:06Edwards and Hanley,
34:07the brokers
34:08you've waited for.
34:10Lewis even agreed
34:11to return to the ring
34:12as a professional
34:14wrestler.
34:15I stopped him
34:16from wrestling.
34:18I said,
34:18Joe,
34:19you can't wrestle.
34:20I said,
34:21that's just like
34:22I said,
34:22the president
34:23of the United States
34:24to wash dishes.
34:27The IRS siege
34:28finally ended
34:29in the early 60s.
34:31Lewis would be taxed
34:32only on future earnings.
34:34But with no steady income,
34:36Joe spun further
34:37into decline.
34:38Then,
34:39he was rocked
34:40by a punch
34:41from an unlikely source.
34:43Lewis,
34:44like many older Americans,
34:46did not relate
34:47to Ali's stance
34:48during the Vietnam War.
34:50Lewis was public
34:52in his feelings
34:53about this.
34:54Ali called him
34:56an Uncle Tom.
34:58And Lewis,
34:59who was anything
35:00but an Uncle Tom,
35:01who did not take
35:02discrimination,
35:04defamation,
35:05or insults
35:05of any kind
35:06while he died,
35:07was frankly devastated.
35:14Lewis landed a job
35:16with Caesar's Palace.
35:17He became a greeter
35:19in Las Vegas,
35:20which might seem
35:22pathetic
35:22to some people,
35:23but really was
35:24quite wonderful
35:25for him.
35:27The realities are,
35:28Joe Lewis loved Las Vegas.
35:30Las Vegas gave
35:31Joe Lewis an opportunity
35:32to rekindle
35:32his celebrity.
35:34Despite his
35:35regenerated fame,
35:36Lewis was drawn
35:37to the dark side
35:38of the City of Lights.
35:40At that time,
35:41he was a changed person.
35:44He was drinking brandy,
35:46smoking,
35:48and then subsequently
35:50became addicted
35:50to cocaine.
35:52Joe, you want a little blow?
35:53Or you want this?
35:53To be macho themselves.
35:55Hey, I got all the coke you need.
35:56You want some?
35:57He became a whole different individual,
35:58and I think that
35:59he just ran his life out
36:01with really
36:02no direction in life.
36:04He became basically
36:05a lost person.
36:08He got so paranoid
36:08and crazy,
36:09he thought
36:09that when you sneezed,
36:11it was a mafia
36:11making a signal
36:12to kill you.
36:14He used to go
36:14in his room
36:15and seal up
36:17the air-conditioned ducts
36:18because he said
36:19that they were
36:20out to pause in him.
36:21I walked in
36:22to see him,
36:23and the room was dark.
36:24All the shades
36:25were drawn.
36:26He had taken
36:27my college desk lamp
36:29and totally unscrewed it.
36:31I said,
36:32what did you do
36:32to my lamp?
36:33He says,
36:34they were listening to me.
36:35He was smearing mayonnaise
36:36on windows
36:37so that FBI rays
36:39would not come through
36:41and pick up
36:41the thoughts
36:42in his brain.
36:43This was a man
36:44who was descending
36:45into mental illness,
36:47as had his father.
36:49Joe's journey
36:50into paranoia
36:51climaxed on May 1st, 1970,
36:53when his family
36:54committed him
36:55into a Denver
36:56psychiatric hospital.
36:57I remember talking
36:58to my father
36:59after I signed the papers,
37:00and he looked at me
37:00and said,
37:00son, why'd you do it?
37:01Why didn't you
37:02come talk to me about it?
37:03And that was a very sad time
37:04in my relationship
37:05with my father.
37:06After leaving
37:07Colorado Veterans Hospital
37:09later that year,
37:10Joe's mental
37:11and physical health
37:12continued to fail
37:13through the 70s.
37:15Finally,
37:15he was confined
37:16to a wheelchair.
37:18His troubles
37:19with the IRS
37:20had been straightened out,
37:22more or less.
37:22But he was,
37:25in many respects,
37:26the antithesis,
37:27certainly physically,
37:29of what he had once been.
37:30People would come up
37:31and give him money
37:33just because he was Joe Lewis.
37:34We wish he would have
37:35lived happily ever after
37:37and faded into the sunset
37:38and been a good grandfather
37:40and had all these wonderful
37:42middle-class values restored.
37:43But he wasn't.
37:44In 1978,
37:46in Las Vegas,
37:47the champ was given
37:49a night
37:49for his 64th birthday.
37:51Frank Sinatra
37:52snapped his fingers
37:54and everybody
37:55who was important
37:57in show business
37:58and politics
37:59and entertainment
38:00came to Caesar's Palace
38:02to honor Joe Lewis,
38:04who they rolled out
38:06on stage
38:07wearing a tuxedo
38:10and then somebody
38:10wrapped a blanket
38:11around him
38:12so he wouldn't shiver.
38:13He has lost
38:14the ability
38:15to talk and to walk
38:17and it was sad
38:18but at the same time,
38:20seeing him
38:21always made you
38:22feel good.
38:23He's still glad
38:25to be in his presence.
38:26I felt very sorry
38:27for Joe.
38:28He always had his dignity
38:29even if he didn't
38:30have any money
38:31and he was always
38:32acted like a champion.
38:34I did not feel then
38:35and I do not
38:36in memory of him now
38:37feel
38:37that he was an embarrassment
38:39to anyone.
38:40On the contrary,
38:41I think
38:41his mark was made
38:42and his memory
38:43lives on in a most
38:45lustrous way.
38:46Joe Lewis would take
38:48his leave
38:48on April 12, 1981.
38:51He was 66.
38:53Way too young.
38:54He never boasted in victory
38:56nor did he weep in defeat.
39:00He apologized not.
39:03He knew too well
39:04that life had 15 rounds
39:06and none of us
39:07can ever win them all.
39:08Here he is
39:09laying dead
39:10in a casket
39:12in a boxing ring
39:13in this tin warehouse
39:15behind Caesar's palace
39:17and I'm thinking
39:19how sad that is.
39:21But in death,
39:23Lewis reclaimed his pride
39:24as a former champion
39:26honored him.
39:28Muhammad walked up to me
39:30at my father's funeral
39:31and put his arm
39:32around me
39:33and we walked off
39:33to the side
39:34and whispered
39:35your father is the greatest,
39:37truly the greatest.
39:38Nine days after his death,
39:41one of the largest
39:41American heroes
39:42was given a military burial
39:44in Arlington National Cemetery.
39:46This was a great man
39:48who transcended boxing
39:50in every way
39:50and for the time
39:52he was champion,
39:54nobody,
39:54including Muhammad Ali,
39:56was ever more revered
39:58as a champion.
39:59There are some people
40:01who are champions,
40:04but all champions
40:06are not heroes.
40:07Joe was a genuine hero.
40:12He forced America
40:13to deal with its conscience
40:15about black and white,
40:16of who can you admire,
40:18who are you allowed
40:19to revere,
40:20and had it not been
40:21for Joe Lewis,
40:22maybe the society
40:23would never have been ready
40:24for Jackie Robinson.
40:26Jackie Robinson always said
40:28that he wouldn't have
40:30gotten his chance
40:31if Joe Lewis hadn't come first
40:33and opened the door
40:34and proven blacks
40:36could compete
40:37on an equal playing field.
40:39I think Joe Lewis' legacy
40:41is as much,
40:43if not more,
40:44to society than to boxing
40:45because he paved the way
40:48for other black athletes
40:49to follow.
40:56When Billy Kahn slipped
40:58in round 10
40:58of their first fight,
41:00Joe Lewis,
41:01ever the gentleman,
41:02stepped back
41:03and allowed the challenger
41:04to regain his footing.
41:05Lewis was less gracious
41:07when asked how he would
41:08approach the Irishman
41:09in their rematch.
41:10He can run,
41:11said the champ,
41:12but he can't hide.
41:14Short and to the point,
41:16like the right hand
41:17that dropped Kahn
41:18for the count
41:18in the eighth round.
41:19For ESPN Classics,
41:22Sports Century,
41:22I'm Chris Fowler.
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